REED ELSEVIER DIVISIONS INVOLVED IN THREE SUITS.

Reed Elsevier division Cahners Business Information (Newton, MA) has settled one lawsuit while Reed Elsevier subsidiary Matthew Bender & Co. (New York) has filed another. A third suit has been filed against another Cahners unit.

Expedia, Inc. and Cahners Business Information have reached a settlement of the suit that Reed Elsevier filed against Expedia and Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA) over a 1998 contract relating to the "Expedia Hotel Directory." According to the settlement, the parties have agreed to dissolve their relationship, with Expedia assuming the advertising contracts that Cahners had originated for the "Expedia Hotel Directory."

In related news, Reed Elsevier subsidiary Matthew Bender has filed a lawsuit in New York against Jurisline.com LLC (New York). The suit alleges that Jurisline has fraudulently obtained Matthew Bender products, and has sought to use those products in developing a legal information service in breach of express restrictions in its contracts with Matthew Bender.

Matthew Bender general counsel Michael Jacobs said "we believe that Jurisline made material misrepresentations to our company in order to obtain access to our "Law-on Disc" information service and has also breached numerous provisions of our subscriber agreements." In return, Jurisline has counter-sued Reed Elsevier alleging the company engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

Finally, McGraw-Hill Cos. (New York) has filed a federal lawsuit in Pittsburgh against Buildingteam.com, a construction business Web site principally owned by Cahners Business Information. The suit alleges that a Cahners employee obtained confidential information on McGraw-Hill's construction information sites, Sweets.com and Construction.com, from a McGraw-Hill employee. McGraw-Hill said it filed the suit against Cahners for "illegally and systematically misappropriating...highly confidential and proprietary business information and for engaging in unfair trade practices."